Tag: MFA

Last Chance! These must see 2019 shows are closing soon: Don’t miss ICA Watershed Purple (installation view above) closing September 2; DeCordova New England Biennial and the Provincetown Art Association & Museum’s 1945 Chaim Gross exhibition close September 15; and catch Renoir at the Clark before it’s gone September 22nd.

A few of the listed upcoming exhibitions to note: the NEW building and exhibits at PEM are opening September 2019; Homer at the Beach is on display at Cape Ann Museum thru December 1 (and catch a Richard Ormond lecture on John Singer Sargent’s Charcoals Sept.28 at Cape Ann Museum (ahead of the Morgan exhibition opening October); three new shows opening at MFA; Gordon Parks at Addison; and Alma Thomas at Smith. A Seuss-focused experience was pronounced destined for Boston, ahead of its TBD venue, by the LA entertainment company co-founders. Some shows I’ve already visited and may write about, mostly from a dealer’s perspective as that is my background. Exhibition trends continue to evolve and reveal new directions. A few patterns I see in the exhibition titles: what’s annointed for display and how it’s contextualized (corrective labels); immersive exhibits; revisiting colonial methodologies and themes; major solo surveys; women artists (and this upcoming season boost underscoring womens’ suffrage and 100th anniversary of the ratification of women’s right to vote); illustration; environment; and issues of humanity and migration. The list is illustrated with images of the sites. All photographs mine unless otherwise noted. Right click or hover to see info; click to enlarge. – Catherine Ryan

The guide – Massachusetts Museum Guide, Fall 2019

Note from author: The list below is alphabetized by town, and details upcoming exhibitions at each venue as well as some that are closing soon. Click the word “website” (color gray on most monitors) for hyperlinks that redirect to venues. For a list alphabetically sorted by venue, see my Google Map (with a Candy Trail overlay) “Art Museums in Massachusetts” hereand embedded at the end of this post. I pulled the map together several years ago. No apps to download or website jumping. Easy scroll down so you don’t miss an exhibit that’s closer than you think to one that you may already be exploring.A few are open seasonally (summer) or weekends only–call first to check before visiting. Major new architectural building projects are underway at BU (closed) and MIT. The 54th Regiment Memorial on Boston Common will undergo restoration. Get ready for close observation of conservation in process. – Catherine

Note to Greenway (see photo notes below): food trucks by the stop should be relocated to other food truck areas (and maybe one tree) to optimize and welcome sight line to the Greenway and public spaces from streets, sidewalk, and South Station. There are pauses elsewhere along the lattice park links, and a generous approach past the wine bar. The temporary commissioned mural could extend verso (or invite a second artist) so that the approach from Zakim Bridge/RT1/93North is as exciting as the approach from Cape Cod.

See complete list of 2019 public art currently on view at The Greenway here

The Greenway packs a lot of punch in a compressed area; its lattice of dynamic public spaces and quiet passages are an easy stroll into the North End or along the HarborWalk to the ICA, roughly similar in size and feel as walking Battery Park and Hudson River Park in New York City.

Through September 2, 2019 at The Water Shed, ICA Boston John Akomfrah: Purplemore

What’s coming in 2020 to The Water Shed? Still TBA

Through September 22, 2019 ICA Less Is a Bore: Maximilist Art & Designmore

Nice installation with a few surprises and thoughtful connection to other exhibtions on view. (The LeWit and Johns selections triggered what about that work or artist? I wish May Stevens and Harmony Hammond were included and my list grew from there. That’s part of the fun of the exhibit.)

Over the past few years, museums join in the Super Bowl spirit via trash talk on social media accounts. From humorous challenges and clever collection puns it’s morphed into big stake art bets for Super Bowl contenders: Some wins have triggered a museum loan from the losing city’s rival fine arts institution. Yesterday (see below) the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, announced a twitter showdown with the J Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles. Look for #MuseumBowl and @mfaboston and @GettyMuseum. It’s going down at 3pm TODAY, Friday, Feb 1, 2019. I don’t know if there’s a wager but I hope so! It’s great fun no matter what.

Mark Feeney highlights the Cape Ann Museum and the Museum of Fine Arts in the Boston Globe Sunday Arts Museum Specials edition because of concurrent spectacular and rare exhibitions: Winnie the Pooh Exploring a Classic opened September 22 and continues through January 6th, 2019 at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston; Virgina Lee Burton “The Little House: Herstory” opens November 3rd at the Cape Ann Museum in Gloucester and continues until March 31, 2019.

Virginia Lee Burton exhibition The Little House: Herstory opens November 3rd Burton resided and worked in Gloucester, Mass., where she created some of America’s most popular and seminal children’s books. She received the Caldecott medal in 1943 for The Little House. Other books include Katy and the Big Snow and Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel. She is renowned for her influential work as a Folly Cove textile designer and founder. Cape Ann Museum is the biggest repository of her art and archives. This 2018 survey will be gorgeous!

If you time it right there is a window of overlap where you can visit both the Harrison Cady and Virginia Lee Burton exhibitions.

A group show celebrating Cape Ann Reads new original children’s picture books by local artists and writers will open in January

Cape Ann Museum received $375,000 Barr-Klarman investment funding in recognition of its stellar contribution to arts and culture in Massachusetts. The Barr Klarman Arts Initiative will disperse 25 million to 29 arts organizations; Cape Ann Museum is one of 3 North of Boston recipients.

When the Patriots win the Eagles might feel more like this woodblock print from the MFA famous prints and drawings collection: **Sad** Eagle on a Pine Branch in the Rain, Isoda Koryusai, ca.1770s, Japanese Edo period, Bigelow collection.

On Friday the two museum twitter accounts will throw down. I wonder which works the MFA will modify this year for the trash talk on twitter, maybe their iconic Copley Paul Revere?

The Philadelphia Museum of Art could doctor their Rubens Prometheus… if so one hopes with the logo, not a player. (And one could argue even still that it’s in the Patriots favor as knowledge of foresight for the win, and Prometheus comes out all right in the end.)

Check out the museums’ twitter accounts @mfaboston vs @HighMuseumofArt. For more fine art and football see

Super Bowl weekend super fundraiser: Smocks & Jocks

The National Football League Player’s Association (NFLPA) held the 12th annual ‘Smocks and Jocks’ Fine Art Auction and Jazz Brunch featuring art created by active and former NFL players (and others). The benefit raises money for the Gene Upshaw Player Assistance Fund.

“Our players are so many different things…The original thought was to create an opportunity for former players to come to the Super Bowl in a more relaxed atmosphere and to show a different side of the professional athlete by them being able to display their art.”

And for Craig Kimberly – Baron Batch (Bansky of the NFL) and fellow former Steeler teammate John Malecki founded Studio A.M. Gallery in Pittsburgh

Flashback: visiting Clark Museum to see Bierstadt’s Puget Sound on loan from the Seattle Art Museum thanks to the Patriots Super Bowl XLIX win. (If Seattle Seahawks won, Homer’s West Point Prout’s Neck in the Clark would have gone west.)

The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, owns 20 incredible and deliberate states from John Wilson’s monumental etching of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. The final state was printed in an edition of 50 in 2002. The 2002 print was based on a smaller Wilson drawing of Dr. King, a 1985 preparatory study for a bronze statue installed in the Rotunda of the US Capital in 1986. Wilson created other portraits of Dr. King including a monumental 8 feet tall bronze that was installed in Buffalo’s Martin Luther King Jr. Park. Its macquette went to the Butler Institute of American Art.

To make the etchings currently on view at the MFA, Wilson collaborated with master printer and artist Jim Stroud. Stroud is the founder and owner of Center Street Studio, named for its address in… Gloucester. Center Street Studio opened and operated from 1 Center Street from 1984 to 1986 before moving to Boston. I co-curated an exhibition Civil Progress in American Art which featured John Wilson in 1986. More to come.

Deborah Cramer thanks Good Morning Gloucester for mentioning her book and asks for photographs and stories about horseshoe crabs, otherwise known as the nearly scene stealing co-stars from her inspiring book on red knots (sandpiper shorebirds), The Narrow Edge.

“I’m in the midst of a project right now trying to uncover the almost forgotten history of the whereabouts of horseshoe crabs in Gloucester. I’ve heard some fantastic stories, like one from a man who used to go down to Lobster Cove after school and find horseshoe crabs so plentiful he could fill a dory. Do you think there’s a value to putting up a few pictures on GMG and asking people to send in their recollections of beaches, coves where they used to see them in abundance?”

We do. Please send in photos or stories if you have them about horseshoe crabs in Gloucester or the North Shore for Deborah Cramer’s project. Write in comments below and/or email cryan225@gmail.com

Here’s one data point. Look closely at this 1869 Winslow Homer painting. Can you spot the horseshoe crabs? Can you identify the rocks and beach?

While reading The Narrow Edge, and looking at Kim Smith’s Piping Plover photographs, I thought about Raid on a Sand Swallow Colony (How Many Eggs?) 1873 by Homer and how some things change while much remains the same.When my sons were little, they were thrilled with the first 1/3 or so of Swiss Family Robinson. As taken as they were with the family’s ingenuity, adventure, and tree house–they recoiled as page after page described a gorgeous new bird, promptly shot. They wouldn’t go for disturbing eggs in a wild habitat. The title ascribed to this Homer, perhaps the eager query from the clambering youngest boy, feels timeless. Was the boys’ precarious gathering sport, study, or food? What was common practice with swallows’ eggs in the 1860s and 70s? Homer’s birds are diminutive and active, but imprecise. Homer sometimes combined place, figures, subject and themes. One thing is clear: the composition, line and shadow are primed and effective for an engraving.

Harper’s Weekly published the image on June 13, 1875. Artists often drew directly on the edge grain of boxwood and a master engraver (Lagrade in this case) removed the wood from pencil and wash lines.

With this in-between-seasons weather, if you’re lucky you can get outside and enjoy a nice hike or some time at one of the Trustees of the Reservation or Mass Audubon properties. Likewise, a good old bike ride is perfect if the sun stays out. If you’re looking for a good day trip that isn’t weather dependent….here are 3 options for this weekend. Pricier than most of my “Picks” usually are, but timely in that they’re not always available as options.

Pick #1: 2016 ISU World Figure Skating Championships!

In 2016, the eyes of the world turn to Boston as 200 of its greatest figure skaters come to TD Garden to compete for the prized title of world champion. The ISU World Figure Skating Championships®, the world’s most important annual skating competition, is coming to Boston for the first time in its 130-year history. This is the event no sports fan will want to miss!

Pick #2: The Big Apple Circus

Boston’s City Hall Plaza

THE GRAND TOUR is a circus extravaganza set in the 1920s and featuring acts from the four corners of the globe. Ships, trains, automobiles, and airplanes will serve as the backdrop for breathtaking acts of wonder, accompanied by the seven-piece Big Apple Circus Band playing live at each of more than 100 performances. Acts will include clowns, jugglers, acrobats, and aerialists, from Africa, Asia, Australia, Europe, and North and South America, as well as domestic and rescue animals, all creating performances that will leave audiences smiling and cheering. The show runs 1 hour and 50 minutes including a 20-minute intermission.

Pick #3: Watson Adventures: The Wizard School Scavenger Hunt

Harry Potter meets Museum of Fine Arts…..pretty cool!

Follow in the footsteps of young wizards

…on a field trip to the Museum of Fine Arts, in search of art that echoes characters, places, and enchanted objects in the famed Harry Potter books and movies. Be prepared to track down flying owls, Hagrid-like giants, centaurs and unicorns like those you’d see in the Forbidden Forest, dragons that seem straight out of the Triwizard Tournament, and eerie figures as scary as any Death Eater or Dementor.

Wizards and muggles alike can play and enjoy this hunt. The hunt is not an addition to or variation on Harry’s adventures, but instead references to the books will provide a surprising bridge to many strange and wonderful works of art. It’s a great way to discover—or rediscover—the museum.

This hunt is designed for kids and adults to do together, but all-adult teams will be allowed to compete separately. Kids must be accompanied by an adult. Recommended for ages 10 and up. Click on the button below to see the hunt schedule and get in the game!

As always, for a more comprehensive list of family activities, visit our friends at North Shore Kid

Pick #1:

The boat show runs from February 14th-22nd at the the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center! Children 15 and under are FREE and adults are only $16. Actually, for a limited time, adults are only $13. It’s a good idea to purchase tix online as the line to buy tickets can get long at times.

My boys LOVED the car show….I can only imagine the mayhem that will ensue when we unleash them at the boat show.

Pick #2:

This event sounds like a blast! Tubing, music, food trucks, frost ice bar, winter sports exhibition, family friendly activities, and much more! This could easily become quite the staycation. Book an inexpensive room and make a little getaway out of it!

Winter on D’s Slope Fest, a three-day wintertime festival offering city-dwellers an urban escape featuring a two-story-high snow slope for tubing, downhill winter sport exhibitions on the slope, a custom-designed illuminated bar carved out of ice by Boston’s Frost Ice Bar, activities for families and the young at heart, a hot Latin dance party and more!

With over five feet of snow blanketing The Lawn, Winter on D’s Slope Fest offers Bostonians the chance to tube down a 70-foot-long slope made of fresh snowy powder – without heading to the mountains. You can leave your snow tubes at home as they will be provided by the MCCA, but make sure to buy a ticket* to ensure that you get a chance to slide down the snowiest hill in Boston! The slope will also be the location for an hour-long sport exhibition featuring the SnowRiders, a team of experienced skiers and snowboarders, who will be twisting and turning in the air to show off their hottest moves on and off the slope**.

Once you’ve had your fill of tubing, grab a hot beverage or choose from local wine and beer selections from the ice bar provided by Boston’s Frost Ice Bar, the world’s largest permanent indoor ice bar in the U.S. Order a special drink to pair it with your favorite menu item from one of the many food trucks that will be on-site for Slope Fest.

Watch Latin dance performances by MetaMovements and even learn the latest dance steps before trying them out yourself during a Latin dance party that will take place before Friday’s Slope Fest downhill winter sport exhibition.

If that isn’t enough, Slope Fest will also feature fun family friendly activities, music from DJ Frankie White, fire pits on The Lawn and more (think snowy selfie photo opps)!

Pick #3

Salem’s So Sweet This event is still going on so if you didn’t make it last weekend…you still have time. Chocolate and ice sculptures…sounds like you can’t go wrong!

Pick #4

PINKALICIOUS: The Musical
February 14 at 2 pm
February 15 at 2 pm and 4 pm
February 18, 19, and 20 at 2 pm
February 21 at 2 pm and 4 pm
February 22 at 2 pm

Back by popular demand! One of the biggest hits with BCT audiences, PINKALICIOUS returns for a limited run in our 2015 season. This pinktastic musical features everyone’s favorite pink princess, Pinkalicious, along with her brother Peter and her adoring parents! Learn why it’s so important to eat your green vegetables! A pinkerrific time will be had by all! Single Tickets Now On Sale! All Performances of PINKALICIOUS at the Cambridge YMCA, 820 Mass. Ave, Cambridge

Pick #5

I’m not typically an arcade fan, but my boys love it here and I actually usually have a pretty good time too! We’ve been to the Providence and the Braintree locations. We eat a decent lunch, play a ton of games, the boys run around like crazy scoring tickets, and then cash them in for some silly little prize.

Thank you again Sibley family! The recent GMG Hopper post of the Sibley family helping to identify the Rockaway Hotel in an Edward Hopper drawing generated more discoveries! For reference, here’s the Hopper Rockaway image and a link to that previous GMG post-

There are several Edward Hopper examples in the collection of The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston , including this beauty, the 1926 House by ‘ Squam River . Can you name its Gloucester location? There are notes indicating that it’s in the general direction heading into Annisquam.

IT’S NOT. I admit to clinging to this suggested area with some unreasonable hope because of personal bias (my parents lived on Wheeler’s Point for 30 years, and the charm and might of its full panoramic vista). I climbed around friend’s properties, sought views from Pole Hill and multiple high vantage spots. But I could not connect that landscape anywhere to this Hopper image.

All it took was reading one tiny email description from a GMG reader – I didn’t even need to visit the spot—to know immediately how right it was. I’m sure some other readers may know it, too.

Hint #1:

For one thing, many of these Gloucester Hoppers are views seen from a succession of magnificent granite sentinels. They are sites of great natural beauty conditioned geographically by glacial stone. This particular location has a massive sweep of boulder outcroppings.

Hint #2

These two houses in the Hopper drawing are still standing and exact.

Hint #3

If there is one Hopper, chances are there are others within close proximity. Here’s two other Hopper drawings, all from the same general perch.

Who had the keen eyes? Thank you to Kathy and Jeff Weaver for identifying the sight line for the Gloucester Edward Hopper image, House by ‘ Squam River in the collection of the MFA. It’s no surprise to me that artist Jeff Weaver—who has a history of Gloucester veduta painting himself, and who knows a great thing or two about extraordinary detail, composition, surface and color as bearer of light– would have a tip! You can see more of Jeff’s work here http://www.jeffweaverfineart.com/. Gloucester creates many optimum sites for plein air study, and artists continue to evolve their work into unmissable interpretations of reality.

And here’s the Answer:

You are looking past Centennial across the landscape of Newell Stadium and Gloucester High School . (Perhaps this might be a possible new funding source for Newell Stadium? This same stadium and field site is the landscape featured in an iconic Gloucester Edward Hopper work of art. )

Like this:

Here’s a great opportunity for your readers!!! On Sunday, Dec. 5, from 1:00-2:30 PM, MFA lecturer, local summer resident and noted art historian Mimi Braverman will lead a small private tour of the new galleries. She will focus on connections to Gloucester by visiting the maritime galleries and the ship models and tour the furniture galleries where there is furniture similar to that in the Sargent House and some of the other local historic houses. Tickets are $125 per person and are available online at www.sargenthouse.org or by mailing checks to the Sargent House Museum, 49 Middle St., Gloucester MA 01930. Checks need to be received no later than Thursday, Dec. 2, 2010. Space is extremely limited. Because the tour groups will be small, there will be ample opportunity for people to ask questions. For more information, call 978-281-2432.

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